Nurses' Responsibility During an Emergency Situation Essay

Nurses' Responsibility During an Emergency Situation - Essay Example Their work outside the hospital includes providing water, food and sanitation services as well and communicating the health implications and needs to the people affected (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2008). This paper looks at what the public nurse work involves when a disaster such as a typhoon hits a populated area. Hospitals When a typhoon hits an area and causes physical injuries and death, hospitals normally find themselves overwhelmed by the number of patients that have to be attended to. Most disasters that involve water, like typhoons are significant due to the levels of damage and mortality involved (Adelman and Legg, 2009). Typhoons may cause people to get injured due to the structural damage that it causes. Those injured may have inside buildings that came down when the typhoon struck. Others might have been driving and their vehicles crushed as a result of the disaster. Others may have been injured trying to escape from the ensuing floods and destruction. Typhoons may also cau se environmental imbalances which may in turn increase the risk of environmental hazards and communicable diseases. The likelihood of diseases such as typhoid and cholera is very high when a disaster such as this occurs (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2008). Hospitals must always be ready to handle such emergency situations that arise from natural or man made disasters. ... It is the duty of nurses to ensure that the loss of life due to injuries is kept at a minimal level (Carmona, 2010). The nurses should coordinate with other hospital staff to ensure that doctors attend to those who are seriously injured as fast as possible. The nurses should also work with doctors in the Intensive Care Unit and emergency centers to ensure that there is enough equipment and medical material to take care of patients (Gebbie and Qureshi, 2002). If there is need to get outside help, the nurses have the responsibility of ensuring that there is proper coordination of activities so that patients can be given the attention they need. The nurses working in hospitals during emergency situations should ensure that all facilities available are well utilized to help save lives (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2008). Water When a typhoon occurs, there is normally water everywhere, making it hard for people to get clean water. In the nursing context, it is the duty of the public health nur se to ensure that people affected by a typhoon or any other disaster for that matter get clean water, especially for drinking and cooking. Nurses should work hand in hand with other emergency agencies and organizations to ensure that everyone has access to clean water, especially for drinking (Adelman and Legg, 2009). By providing clean drinking water to the community affected by a typhoon, or any other disaster for that matter, he nurses would be fulfilling theory part of their role of providing basic care and life requirements. Water should be made available to everyone who has been affected by a disaster. In the case of a typhoon, it is very difficult to